REQUIRMENTS:
Pilgrims must agree the following statements are true. If you do not agree, the pilgrimage will not be meaningful for you.
1. Before we lived on this land, other people were here. They had their own cultures and lives. This land was their home.
2. We pushed these people out of this land by force and took it for our own.
The pilgrimage involves two acts of physical discomfort. These are not acts of penance. You are not being judged for things that happened before you were born. You are embracing discomfort so your soul can understand why our culture remains at odds with creation.
TIME:
The pilgrimage must take place at Sunrise or Sunset, during the transition from night to day or day to night.
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THE PILGRIMAGE
Act One:
Take a vow to complete the pilgrimage, as best you can.
Walk the Camino from the Welcome Center to Dulcinea slowly. Take a step and stay in that place until you understand how it differs from the place you inhabited one step before.
When you arrive at Dulcinea, enter and kneel on the stone before the door. Offer this prayer or one like it:
Sacred Mother, how are we to live well on this land, knowing that we took it violently from those who were before us? We took this land because we could, and that was the only justification we needed.
Wait on your knees until our Lady speaks to you. No one can say how She will speak. Some hear a voice. Some feel a kind of electric charge running through their veins. Still others find their minds energized with plans for things to do and be. If She does not speak, you need silence. Wait until you are ready and move on.
Act Two:
Remove your shoes and walk the path north beyond Dulcinea until you reach the end of the Land of La Mancha. There you will see the shrine to the Warrior. Place your hand on his thigh and listen. Stay until The People who were here before speak to you.
As with Dulcinea, no one can predict how The People will speak. Do, think, say, or be what the warrior requires of you in that moment.
Act Three:
You are released from your vow. Your pilgrimage is over. You are at the farthest northern point of the Land of La Mancha. Depart in any direction available and you will eventually find your way back to the Welcome Center, where your life may or may not be waiting for you.
Go in peace. Go troubled. Go angry. Go sad. Go inspired. Go fearful.
Go in the way you must go.
